Fleetwood Hesketh leave it

FLEETWOOD Hesketh’s fifth place in the Premier Division table and the chance of a place in next season’s Lancashire Knockout was strengthened on Saturday, when Mark Prince and Mike Bimpson teamed up to seal a dramatic last ball victory at Wallasey.

FLEETWOOD Hesketh’s fifth place in the Premier Division table and the chance of a place in next season’s Lancashire Knockout was strengthened on Saturday, when Mark Prince and Mike Bimpson teamed up to seal a dramatic last ball victory at Wallasey.

Asked to bat first, Gary Wells’ in form side got off to a slow start with 36 runs coming off the first 15 overs for the loss of two key wickets, however a couple of dependable knocks from Derek Sykes (29) and Mike Bimpson (25) then helped Jon Bowden (70) to increase the tempo of the innings with an array of boundaries.

A late batting collapse then saw the Kwik Cars sponsored club lose their last six wickets for just seven runs, as they slipped from 168-4 to 175 all out.

The hosts’ reply got off to a similarly slow start to that of Fleetwood’s.

They then also had a similar collapse, which saw them slip from 41-1 to 63-5 as Danny Murphy (2), Andy Davies, Andrew Watts and Mark Prince all got amongst the wickets.

However a substantial 90 run partnership between Richie Conlan (37) and Chris Bourne (52) put the hosts firmly in the driving seat and at 153-3 there seemed to be only one winner.

Andy Davies then dismissed both batsmen in the space of two overs, to take his season’s league tally to 46 victims in his debut season for the Marshsiders and leave the hosts on 164-7 with 11 balls remaining.

Wallasey managed to see out the rest of the young spinners over (168-7) and therefore needed eight to win off the final Mark Prince over, the left arm seamer then wrapped up a remarkable five run victory, with wickets off his 2nd, 4th and final delivery (brilliantly stumped by Bimpson) to finish with 4-53.

Sunday’s Echo Knockout semi-final at St Helens Recs was a more one sided contest as the hosts recorded a comfortable victory and booked their place in the final against Wallasey.

Recs hit 129-9 in their allotted 20 overs, with Kiwi Anthony Bullick top scoring with 63 in 45 balls, with the pick of Fleetwood’s bowlers being Kasun Bodhisha (3-20) and Andy Davies (3-35).

In reply, Fleetwood never recovered after losing both Neil Rimmer and Kasun Bodhisha in the fourth over (29-2), wickets then fell at regular intervals and the fact that they only hit two more boundaries in the entire innings, meant they crept to an eventual total of 101-8, which was someway short of their intended target.

The second team gave themselves every chance of survival with an emphatic 53 run home win over Wallasey seconds, Paul Regan won the toss and elected to bat first, a fine 61 from Neil Pike and 37 from Danny Card then helped the skipper declare on 168-8 off 45 overs.

In reply, a succession of early dropped catches kept the visitors firmly in the hunt, until Bhautik Shukla (5-34) spun his magic to leave them reeling on 115 all out, the win now lifts them a point above the relegation zone with two games remaining.

This Saturday (noon) sees the first team entertain Prestatyn at Sea Cop, while the seconds still have plenty of work to do to ensure their Premier status for 2009 with a visit to Northop Hall (12.45pm), with the thirds visiting Ormskirk on Sunday (12.45pm).